The present invention relates to a novel chew toy for dogs for improving canine dental care. In recent years veterinarians have become increasingly aware of the need for improved canine dental care and are frequently recommending the regular brushing of a dog's teeth to prevent decay and gum disease. Because such a practice is distasteful to many pet owners and their pets, the veterinarians' recommendations are generally ignored to the detriment of the animals' teeth and gums.
Recognizing the need for improved canine dental care and the reluctance of pet owners to brush their animals' teeth, the pet industry has developed a wide variety of chew toys that provide a cleaning of the dog's teeth and a messaging of its gums as well as pleasant enjoyment for the dog. A popular chew toy for such purposes comprises a short length of cotton rope having large knots formed near the ends thereof so as to resemble a classic dog bone configuration. As the dog chewed the toy, the soft cotton rope provided a cleaning and flossing of the dog's teeth superior to that provided by conventional hard rubber toys. Cotton, however, is not inherently attractive to dogs. To enhance the attractiveness of chew toys to dogs, a wide variety of rawhide chew toys have been developed, some of which have become very popular. Rawhide is the hide of an animal such as cattle, pigs, buffalo, deer or elk that has not been exposed to tanning. Rawhide has an inherent advantage over cotton in dog chew toys because of the attractiveness of its texture to dogs. Also, rawhide is more abrasive than cotton or the rubber from which chew toys are made, arguably providing improved plague removal and superior cleaning of the animal's teeth when chewed. However, the rawhide chew toys heretofore developed do not provide the beneficial flossing effect of the cotton chew toys. The chew toy of the present invention provides both the benefits of rawhide and the flossing effect of the less attractive cotton chew toys.
Recent years have seen the addition of effective therapeutic agents such as a dental cleansing agent or breath freshener to pet chew toys as well as an added attractant such as a flavoring or scent. While scents and flavorings have been added to rawhide chew toys, they are typically applied to and carried solely by the surface of the rawhide. Once the animal licks the flavoring from the toy, any future enticement to chew provided by the scent or flavoring is lost and the chew toy may be ignored. The same would be true of a therapeutic agent carried by the surface of the chew toy. The chew toy of the present invention not only utilizes the inherent attractiveness of the rawhide while providing the beneficial flossing found in many of the cotton toys, it can effectively carry and deliver one or more therapeutic agents and/or carry an added animal attractant.